RCN Foundation launches funding call to develop a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)

RCN Foundation launches funding call to develop a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) focused on nurses’ early interventions to support the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children and young people. 

The call asks for applications from individuals or organisations to develop a MOOC aimed at supporting non-Mental Health registered nurses who care for children and young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing throughout their clinical nursing practice.

The MOOC will support the use of a broader toolkit to support assessment and nurse-led interventions to improve the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children and young people (CYP).

The MOOC will explain: 

• How the different elements of the toolkit work to help nurses’ to identify appropriate early interventions to support the mental health and emotional wellbeing of the children and young people that they work with
• The evidence base underpinning the toolkit

Improving the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children and young people through nursing-led interventions is a key grant-making priority for the RCN Foundation. During the first wave of COVID-19, clinically significant mental health conditions amongst children in the UK rose by 50% compared to three years earlier and 1 in 6 children now have a probable mental health condition.

Through their engagement with children in non-stigmatising environments such as schools and  home and community settings, nurses, including school nurses and health visitors, are ideally placed to address children and young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing, enabling early interventions and improved access to support.

Background

In 2019, the Foundation funded Sheffield Hallam University to undertake a scoping review to identify the available evidence on nursing-led interventions that support the mental health and emotional wellbeing of CYP.  They reported  that non-Mental Health trained nurses such as school nurses, health visitors or emergency department nurses, are well-placed to deliver screening and assessments, relieving pressure on more specialist, acute Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services.  The review also found such non-Mental Health trained nurses would benefit from a toolkit and training relating to assessment and early nurse-led interventions to manage CYP mental health and emotional well-being across a variety of settings.

Application

The RCN Foundation is now launching this funding call based upon the recommendations from this review. Funding is available up to the value of £30,000 and the project should be undertaken in 2023-2024. The Foundation welcomes applications that demonstrate originality and innovation.   

The project must cover initiatives in all four countries of the UK and include consultation with nurses, midwives and healthcare support workers caring for children and young people. The lived experience of CYP and their parents/carers must also be included.

Applications are now closed.